★★★★★ 0/5

MasterChef Australia

The first taste of TEN's new reality series spun FremantleMedia's lazy susan of audition devices previously employed for singers & dancers. But the real test is to come.

92
Leave a comment

mcp“You’re going to Sydney!”

TEN served up it’s new reality series MasterChef Australia tonight cooked with a splash of colour, personalities and ambitions as its mid year main course.

The search to transform an amateur cook into the next big thing in the food industry will become stripped television, airing six nights a week.

For Australia it is a new format, with a new television host and new judges. The question is whether it can be eaten up by a new audience.

The first episode focussed on its searches in Sydney and Adelaide. 7500 people applied to be on the show. Some made it to these city cook-offs.

The show began safely, with a montage of what was to follow with a voice-over hyping up the stakes (or is that steaks?) and moments of drama.

Host Sarah Wilson introduced us to the Sydney cook offs with shots of the Sydney Opera House and queues of hopeful contestants. You could be mistaken for thinking you had tuned in to another reality show.

Select contestants soon followed in profile. Here contestants had an hour to cook and five minutes to serve up their best dish for three well-fed judges Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston.

Alas, several contestants didn’t cut the mustard until one woman was embraced, literally, for her home-cooked style as a tasty and honest dish.

Across the Sydney auditions the format stuck like glue to other FremantleMedia reality shows. Two judges have even borrowed Jason Coleman’s trademark “yeah?” (“We’re expecting something bam, yeah?” / “I want to see it, yeah?”).

Some contestants emerged jubilant to the waiting throng, elated they were ‘going to Sydney.’ Had they just sung a song or danced? Not quite.

Adelaide chefs were next, as Wilson told us the huddled masses were waiting to find out who would be Australia’s next MasterChef. Make that first MasterChef, Sarah? Reiterate the brand, perhaps…

But Adelaide failed to get the message, as it seemingly always does when TEN visits for reality television. At Mehigan’s insistence, Calombaris had to bark at the contestants to lift their game. Lo and behold, the next cook was a wonder. It’s a technique often employed by FremantleMedia -in fact so was the show.

The audition week on its first outing played it unexcitingly safe. A lazy susan of devices for auditioning singers and dancers was applied to chefs here. But cooking doesn’t translate anywhere near as well as singing or dancing. We  don’t smell or taste the dishes in the same way as when we are moved by song or watching dancers crumble in such a tele-visual heap. So it’s up to the judges to do it for us.

At first glance Preston is very good, larger than life, with an easily communicated character. He’s like a royal taste tester with an upper-class delivery. He’d have been perfectly good fronting his own show once a week. Mehigan, Calombaris -and for that matter Wilson- are yet to really prove their stuff. At least they weren’t pigeon-holed into good judge / bad judge.

This preliminary week is not the real test. That comes next week when MasterChef moves into its weeknight challenges. Then it will be up to viewers to take the taste test and decide if MasterChef works as an expanded feast or is just a television progressive dinner.

3_starsMasterChef Australia airs Sunday – Friday nights on TEN.

92 Responses

  1. I love to watch the show.
    So far I believe that the judges have been (more or less) fair in there decisions.
    I like the Judges. Each have their own style and they are fine. Most important they treat the contestants with respect and tolerance, whatever you like them or not.
    Only one big Mystery for me. What is Julie still doing in Master Chef??!!!
    She should had gone much before others much better than her.
    There is an old say in my Country … : “It is better to fall in grace than be gracefull”
    That must be the case!!! I have never seen her even attempting a sophisticated dish.
    Home food that’s all. She must be a really very nice lady!

  2. I think all the nasty comments about Chris Badenoch, are because he is being true to himself and not putting it on for the camera. I like him and even though I do not think he will win, I believe he will go far as a chief. Good on you Chris in all you do in your future. I would eat at your restaurant any day. To everyone else, “Play nice and stop being jealous and spiteful”.

  3. I would like to remind the Judges that they are not above everyone else in this country let alone their contestants. Remember to Human and not prance around as though your Sh– does not stink. I love your show and do not want to be entaganised by those who would have their heads up there a—.

  4. love the show i only hope that its not aired same time with home and away we struggle here at home trying to watch both at the same time. God bless all the contestant and good luck.

  5. To Sam’s comments above your spelling is terible and comment stupid.
    Masterghef is giving these people a great chance to learn from very talented
    people. I hope Julie wins.

  6. I like the show. I like the variety of judges and the Masterchef Class.

    I have to laugh at the comments of weight problem they heap on all of you, especially Matt Preston. Excuse me, but, he is the top food critic in Oz. How would the rest of us be eating all that good food or not so good food. My stomach would groan and bloat, my body weight would become body fat and make me cry.

    I can only say the critics must not cook or know very much about food.

    Keep up the good work Matt and keep the chefs and restaurants of Oz honest and serving us great food.

    Your etiquette is dreadful. Your mothers must cringe as they see you on live TV. Look they can’t hold a knife and fork properly.

    …and dare say lick the knife hmmmm, mum would be sad.

    I am concerned about the contestant ,the bloke in the hat. They call him the ‘Ice Man, Chris is it’. What about his greasy hair and that hat soaking up all the grease, food odours he cooks in – yuk. I would never go to anything he owned with that hair and hat . Burn the hat and cut the hair if you are around food.

  8. Biggest Pile of Crap Seen In Years.

    Yes I do realise Seinfeld,Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends all have been done to death and It was time for something new also to replace Big Brother but why not a Laguna Beach/OC type of show for the younger generation in that timeslot just think of the ratings.

  10. i dont like the judge with the stupid clourfull things around his neck he is so ennoying ,,,, the look about him you just wanna slap him>>>

    and george oh my good how many times can you say yeah
    and the stupid people say yes chef when the get a bad comment how stupid r they..

  11. Thats it! after tonights show you’ve lost me as a viewer! I can’t beleive for one minute 2 of the best chefs and suposedly one of the best food critics in the country couldn’t pick wich desert out of 3 amatures was the best and the worst!
    This has convinced me that the show is scripted and a load of crap. The so called food critic is the biggest joke of them all. He needs someone to teach him how to dress ans shop for clothes that fit his fat a***.George has convinced me never to go to his resteraunt as he hasn’t got any idea even how to talk properly or hold a knife and falk. The winner will be the girl who beat the chef in the cook off comp. The scripted winner!!!!!!!!!

  12. I ask to big boys where tartar steak from and how they make tartar steak and what meat it is steak on i tell you this steak not from paris

  13. Tell me how raw meat and a raw egg yolk won last nights show?
    It looked like the ingredients to rissoles but the chef forgot to fry the mixture. I love to cook and love to eat but that dish looked revolting.

  15. The music makes this show. Without it, it would be a show where we get to watch some fat guys eat and pick on other’s cooking; with the music, however, it’s like watching a Jason Bourne movie.

    This show is actually brilliant, and building up towards supporting the overall network philosophy. Watching what they eat, and how they cook, this show is clearly just trying to create (rather succesfully) new contestants for next year’s “The Biggest Loser”, where hopefully we can see them cry lots as well as they work out their issues.

  16. Am enjoying the program but could someone please ask the contestants to take their hair off their faces – it’s disgusting seeing them leaning over food & lank/greasy hair almost dipping in the sauce.

    Sam stop swearing, you’re not quite in the Gordon Ramsay category yet but the language is unbecomming – doesn’t add to your culinary expertise or persona.

    I like the judges – just the right amount of criticism without too much rancor -but the constant repetition is annoying –

    I can’t pick a winner yet – can anyone else? will we actually be left with the best contestants? Look forward to following through to end. Regards Brie

  17. I am cheering for Sam tonight, he gave up his honeymoon for this give him a break, and George you need lessons on how to hold your cutlery and how to eat, I couldn’t sit opposite you and eat.

  18. Sigh. The judges vote off the weakest and the other contestants get to vote off the strongest. Leaving the mediocre and boring middle. Such a shame as would have been nice to see the strongest amateur cooking talent make it through to the end.

  19. I’m quite enjoying this show but the one real problem I have with it, is the challenge with the celebrity chef. It seems to me that this is no win situation for the contestant as they have absolutely zero chance of winning. The show knows that no-one will be fasttracked through to the final week. The judges know exactly who has cooked which dish as soon as they see it.
    A better format for this would be to have two of the contestants cooking a signature dish from a renowned chef and the one who cooks the best dish can have “immunity” in the next challenge.

  20. The show started well but as soon as it turned into ‘Survivor Meets The Biggest Loser’ and followed that familiar, and oh-so boring, format I lost interest. I watched the last show and turned off after 25 minutes having not seen one dish cooked. This is a poor representation of the UK show which was brilliant. It is dumbed-down rubbish that will not result in the best cook winning because the best cook will be voted off by the weaker paranoids. What a shame!

  21. How can you take the judges comments seriously when they can’t hold a knife and fork properly. They talk about upholding standards in a restaurant yet they have no respect for etiquette. They have lost me.

  22. I’m loving it! Am making the mash and lamb from last night now! Think it’s heaps better than the UK version and is something different! Must admit I IQ it to get through all the ‘previously’ and ‘coming up’ bits!

  23. Could Channel 10 take a look at the Masterchef show in Great Britian…you need it.This one is a total embarrasment..thought the contestants were there on their cooking ability…not so…you show the contestants in their real light,greedy,backbiting,horrendously cruel…they would rather cut one anothers throats rather than a side of beef.As for that little Kate,who I originally liked,zip your mouth girly,you would do anything to stay on..oh,3 stars for the crocodile tears after you slayed that poor girl….another typical channel 10 pile of s**t!!!!As for the judges…get off your a***s & get the contestants cooking without all the animosity you are causing between them.Was this supposed to be a cooking contest?????or another ghastly biggest loser?Changing channels now!

  25. after the Ivy last night, the one to leave should be the guy who stole the other team’s beef, what was he doing in their area anyway, sabotage me thinks, judges watch the Ivy show again, I don’t know how the others won, the difference in prices seems suspect, and would the judges actuallly explain “wratch it up a notch” be soecific by how, Sandra should also go for being weak.

Leave a Reply